Fresh water, for drinking and crops, has become an increasingly valuable resource. People around the world need fresh water. Although most of our planet is covered with water, only a small fraction of that water is drinkable or suitable for crops. Our water supply has become increasingly contaminated with chemicals from pharmaceuticals, agriculture and industry and microbials. People have also become increasingly concerned with drinking water quality. However, water treatment becomes more complicated, expensive, and less effective as water becomes more contaminated. One solution is to buy bottled water, but this is an expensive solution and has led to a large consumer waste problem (from used plastic bottles), and contamination of the bottled water from the plastic bottle itself.
One remedy for a lack of clean water is to generate water from the atmosphere. Systems for converting atmospheric moisture into potable water are known. Examples of known systems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,675,442; 2,996,897; 2,682,758; U.S. 20140182321; US 2016/0333553; and WO 2013/084077. However, known systems suffer from a lack of portability and ease of use, often being large, complex, and bulky, requiring that the water generator be moved by truck or significant manpower. These large systems are unsuitable for consumer use, which has resulted in a lack of consumer acceptance of such systems. Other systems are highly complex, expensive, and suffer from energy inefficiencies making them economically unviable except in extreme conditions were potable water is unavailable, e.g., military applications, where delivering potable water outweighs expense and portability.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved portable atmospheric water generator which efficiently produces potable water, at an energy efficiency level that is attractive to consumers and is user friendly such that the water generator will be used an implemented by the average consumer.